Fireflight
by espeon16
Summary: "She will rise up from the ashes like a phoenix of the night." One dark prophecy. One boisterous girl. What hidden connection does she have with the dark secrets of the Order?
1. Prologue: The Girl with No Name

Alma saw a new face in the cafeteria today.

The new person in question was a girl too skinny to be healthy, with her left arm in a sling and bandages going around her head, shakily holding on to a steaming cup of tea in her good hand.

"Hey!" Alma said, having dragged Yuu behind him to plop down on the empty bench beside the girl, "I'm Alma, and this is Yuu. Who are you?"

Huge steel-grey orbs turned to face them. The girl blinked once, twice, and then turned away again.

Alma pouted.

"Tell me your name," he whined, and she swung to glare at him.

"Shut the hell up," the girl hissed between gritted teeth, hand tightening threateningly around a nearby fork.

"I-"

The fork came flying at him before he could finish, and the girl turned back to her tea as Alma fled.

Kanda stayed behind.

"He only wanted to know your name," he told her indignantly.

The tea cup was set down with a bang on the wooden cafeteria table, and Kanda could have sworn he saw her shoulders tremble a little.

"I have no name," muttered the girl, "Nobody cared enough to give me one."

* * *

After Kanda had finished relating the entire story to Alma, he noticed the other boy's eyes light up and felt a sense of dread wash over him.

"We'll care!" Alma cried happily, "We'll be her friends!"

Kanda groaned, trying to pretend that Alma had not just uttered the dreaded words.

"Yuu~! Answer me!"

Pulling the blankets over his head, Kanda shut his eyes and tried to fall asleep, in a bid to get Alma to give up on his crazy idea.

* * *

"I saw her following _Leverrier_ around," Kanda told Alma a few days later. "Anybody who does that willingly is one of _them_. She'll never be your friend, so give up already."

Alma shook his head furiously.

"She's nice inside! I _know_ it."

* * *

A couple of days later Kanda and Alma were wandering the corridors of the Asia Branch, looking for a spare training room.

Alma pushed open the door to one, and stopped short, causing Kanda to bump into him as he stared through the crack.

"It's her," he whispered, "it's her, Yuu."

Kanda tiptoed, doing his best to peer over Alma's head.

It was indeed the girl from the cafeteria, and she was sparring with a much older man.

Perhaps _sparring_ was not such an appropriate word to use, but more of _being beaten up by_ a much older man.

The sling had been taken off, Kanda observed, and she was trying to defend herself with purplish-blue bruised arms.

"Tch," the man growled, "Pathetic, Ninety-nine."

Without warning he lunged forward again, catching her by surprise. She stumbled backward while attempting to dodge a blow coming for her head, but her knees buckled and she fell onto the tatami mats.

The man looked at her with disdain.

"At this rate, you will be replaced. Improve yourself, or we will get a replacement."

With that, he turned and stalked away, in the direction of the doors. Suddenly, Alma and Kanda were scrambling to get away from the door and hide behind a pillar.

The man pushed open the door to leave the room, then slammed it shut again.

"Good day," he sneered in the general direction of the hidden Kanda and Alma, "_Exorcists_."

His echoing bootsteps disappeared down the hall.

When the coast was clear, Kanda and Alma crept out from their hiding place and into the training room.

The girl was holding a long piece of cloth, and attempting to wrap up her arm, which looked raw and was bleeding.

"I'll help you with that," Alma offered, crawling forward and sticking out his hand.

She slapped it away.

"Go away," she growled.

"We're only trying to be _nice_!" Alma protested.

That statement tore a bitter laugh from her throat, and she looked down, hair forming a curtain to hide her face.

"_Nice_?" she asked mockingly.

"Yes!"

"Lies," came the answering snarl, "You and Central are all the same. Deceiving others with pretty stories, then turning a cold shoulder when we discover reality. You Exorcists are just like them."

Alma had no reply, so Kanda took over.

"We're not like those Central guys…"

"Go ahead, keep telling yourselves that," she snapped back, "you follow their orders like dogs. Dogs of Central. Just because you have Innocence, just because you don't need to put in so much effort to get respect, you get this elitist mindset. I hate people like that."

"W-w-we're _not_!" By this time, Alma was sniffling, but his fists were clenched in determination.

"Go to hell," she flippantly replied, before turning back to her bandages.

Kanda sighed, and hauled Alma to his feet.

"You'd better go see Matron, at any rate."

"She doesn't give a damn about me either. No one does."

Alma frowned, and opened his mouth.

"Go," she said before he could say anything, "just get the hell out of here."

* * *

Several weeks later she disappeared without a trace.

"Where is she?" Alma demanded of a guard when three hours of combing the Asia Branch proved unsuccessful.

The guard looked at them.

"I have no idea who you are talking about," he said dryly.

"The girl! With grey eyes and all the bandages and-"

"Number Ninety-nine has been disposed of and replaced," the guard cut in, in a monotone voice.

Alma clenched his fists.

"Where did you put her?"

The guard remained silent.

"She was callous to you," Kanda whispered, "why do you still care?"

Alma refused to answer, and struggled as Kanda tried to hold him still. Suddenly, they heard the sharp clicking of boots, and turned to look.

"So you're the Exorcists Ninety-nine met," said a teenage boy with blonde hair and a straight-cut fringe, "Did you know because of you, she lost control of her emotions and had to be replaced? I won't make the same mistake she did."

Kanda clapped a hand over Alma's mouth before the other boy could yell anything.

"You're Number Hundred?" he asked coolly.

"Not that it matters. Mind your own business, Exorcists."

With that, the boy walked off down the corridor.

* * *

It was only much later that Kanda realized that girl had been part of Central's new programme.

A programme to produce CROWs, star fighters who worked like robots, not affected by emotions and able to effectively fight in all conditions.

Sometimes, his thoughts drifted back to her.

_I wonder if she's happier now…?_

_

* * *

_

**A/N:** This is a rewrite of my story, Firebird!

To old readers: Welcome back. It's the start of a new journey, and I hope you'll stay with me.

To new readers: Welcome, and I hope you'll enjoy this story as it develops.

I'll be updating, but no longer regularly nor frequently. I _will_ update though, so stay tuned!

~Luna (espeon16)


	2. Prologue: The Street Urchin

"_Master,_" a young boy whined, tagging after a tall man with long red hair.

"Quit whining, Allen," the tall man – now identified as 'Master' – growled back, running a hand through his red hair.

The white-haired small boy squeaked and went silent, but soon began fidgeting again.

"Why are we wandering through the back alleys of China anyway?"

"Because."

The boy – 'Allen' – sniffed and went silent, eyes still darting around from time to time as he clung to his skinny arms.

He held back a sudden gasp as his eye transformed of its own will, and 'Master' turned around to glance at him, only to make a _tsk_ sound as he pulled out a golden revolver.

"Akuma," he growled, "remember to stay alert this time, Allen."

Far in the distance, he could see several balloon-shaped things floating towards their general direction, camouflaged against the starless midnight sky. There were probably about seven to ten on them, and they appeared to be chasing something – or _someone_, even.

A painfully skinny girl in street-urchin clothes came dashing towards them at full pelt, throwing occasional glances behind her at the Akuma and running blindly, never noticing the duo in front of her until she ran into the boy, bowling him over.

Getting up swiftly, she looked all around her like a frightened animal.

"Stay behind me," 'Allen' whispered, "Master'll take care of them. They didn't shoot you, did they?"

She shook her head mutely, but he missed the slight widening of her eyes when they slipped past his face to land on 'Master' and the black coat he was wearing.

Raising his revolver smartly, 'Master' fired several times in succession, and within a matter of seconds the balloon-like Akuma had all exploded. Sighing, he tucked the revolver back into the folds of his coat and turned to face the two children.

"Kid," he growled gruffly, "why are the Akuma chasing you in the middle of the night?"

The girl's eyes strayed to his jacket again, and she flinched as she looked away, her refusal resolute. He groaned.

"I won't bite, kid."

There was silence.

"You have the Rose Cross," she muttered reluctantly after persistent prodding from 'Allen', "I don't trust you."

Wrenching herself free of 'Allen', she pulled her ragged outfit around her thin frame and began to walk off.

"Hear me out," called 'Master' after her retreating silhouette, "I'm not a dog of the Order."

They saw her freeze, and her shoulders tense up. After a long, long pause, she finally turned around again, huge grey eyes boring into theirs, scanning them from head to toe.

"…Who _are_ you, anyway?"

* * *

'Master' flinched at the skeptical glance she threw at him.

"You're _Cross Marian_? That general who's in Leverrier's bad books?"

"Am I _that_ infamous?"

Her raised eyebrow and straight face was enough of an answer.

"You should've seen the labels given to you. 'Subdue on Sight' and 'Highly Dangerous' and the like," she said dryly, smirking slightly as he scowled.

'Allen' blinked, gaze flicking back and forth between the two, like a particularly exciting tennis match.

"How do you even know who Master is?" he asked curiously, butting in.

A long palpable pause filled the air, before she swallowed.

"I used to…help out there. At the Order," she said quietly, in a tone that brooked no further discussion.

'Allen' nodded, and did not ask any further questions.

* * *

When Cross had sent 'Allen' out to gamble for some money, he turned back to the girl.

"So now you know my apprentice, Allen Walker. He's usually pretty good at seeing if people are lying or not, but I guess you must be a pretty accomplished liar. You were one of the experiments of the Order, weren't you?"

Not expecting this direct question, she stared at him dumbly, before shaking her head furiously.

"I…don't know what you're talking about. What experiments?"

Rolling his eyes, Cross reached out and grabbed hold of her lank hair, holding it up to expose a tiny tattoo on the back of her neck.

"There's no way you'd be scared of my Rose Cross unless they did something scarring to you," he said, letting her hair fall down again, apparently satisfied, "besides, that tattoo there just confirms it."

He could see cynicism in her eyes, warring with a childish innocence and a desire to believe that he was not going to harm her or turn her over.

"Anyway," she said, turning away after a while, "since you're a General and all, I think you should keep this."

Evidently she had decided to give in to her child's instincts and trust him. Hidden in a secret pocket in the folds of her ragged garment was a green crystal, which she pushed into his hands.

"I saw this a couple of days ago. That's why they were chasing me."

_Innocence,_ Cross told himself as he blinked dumbly at the glowing crystal in his grasp.

"How did you find this-"

She shook her head, obviously refusing to answer. Giving up, Cross changed topic instead.

"Stay for dinner? Allen usually manages to get enough money out of poker for three or four days of decent meals, and you look like you need one."

* * *

Allen looked delighted to see her still there when he returned, dragging a bag of chicken pies with his pockets stuffed with money.

"One of them was a pie stall owner," he said proudly, "and he wagered all these pies."

"Good job," Cross said gruffly, reaching over to take the money and a couple of pies. Taking a pie out of the bag, he handed it to the girl before taking another three and beginning to demolish them.

"What's your name, anyway?" he asked between bites, pastry flakes stuck to his face. "I'm Allen Walker."

She nibbled at her pie.

"I…don't have one," she said finally, squirming under his inquisitive gaze.

"Let's give you one!" Allen cried immediately, ignoring her stunned blinking and Cross' sigh.

"It's fine, really-"

"Kiara!"

"…_Eh_?"

Cross sighed, flicking Allen's forehead with his finger.

"I tried to teach him Japanese before. He thinks _kira-kira_ means pretty, and he can't even pronounce it properly."

Ignoring Allen's indignant protest, the girl smiled shyly.

"It's a nice name."

"And your surname will be Akatsuki, because you are puny and have yet to grow, like a new dawn."

Swallowing the last of her pie, she looked at Cross curiously.

"I'll probably be gone by tomorrow, why are you even bothering to go so far as to give me a name?"

"You'll be safer with us than out alone by yourself!" Allen interjected, pouting at her.

"I've been coping fine for a while now."

"_Please_?"

She paused, and her eyes bored into Allen's.

"…I'll consider it."

* * *

She was still there the next morning.

* * *

**A/N:** I _did_ say I wouldn't be a frequent updater. :)

_Kira-kira_ actually means sparkling/glittering. _Akatsuki_ literally means dawn/daybreak.

There will most probably be one last chapter of introduction after this, and then we will begin to move into the main plot after that.

Liked it? Hated it? Where did I go wrong and how can I improve? I'd love it if you could give me feedback in a review.

Until the next chapter,

~Luna

(aka **espeon16**.)


	3. Prologue: The Real Beginning

"You're too slow."

The stout twig in Allen's hand was snapped into half, and he swallowed as the tip of another stick swung in to point at his neck.

"I win," Kiara said mildly, a hint of smugness in her voice.

Sighing, Allen slumped to the ground, pushing his white bangs away from his face.

"You suck," he whined.

"Suck it up. One day you'll thank me when you can't fight with your Innocence," sniffed Kiara dismissively, before breaking into a grin and helping him up. "You're improving though. Maybe in another couple of months we can convince Master Cross to buy you an actual pair of knives."

"He says they're called _tanto_."

"Whatever," she grinned. "I don't care."

It had been three months since Kiara joined them in China, and Cross had insisted that she teach Allen how to fight without using his Innocence.

In return, she'd insisted he teach her how to cheat at poker, a fact that Cross discovered and decided to exploit. Now, with her and Allen cheating people of their money, they could pay off a significantly larger amount of Cross' overflowing debts.

It annoyed her sometimes, how Cross was such an incredibly lazy bum that he had to exploit his disciples to pay off his huge alcohol bills.

Life now, however, was much better than back at the Order, so she never complained.

* * *

They were in Korea now, tracking down a possible Innocence lead.

At least, they _had_ been. They had found it, and Cross had decided to leave them in their inn room and go to a brothel that night, leaving them to safeguard the Innocence.

Kiara sat on the edge of the bed, kicking her legs idly. It was already late at night, but she was not sleepy in the least.

A banging on the door startled her.

"Kiara?"

Allen's voice was muffled through the door. Pulling on her tattered coat over her shirt and pants, she opened the door to see an extremely panicked Allen with his eye already activated.

"There are Akuma!"

"You _do_ realize it's dangerous for us to fight it alone, Allen-kun," Kiara stated dryly. "You're the only Exorcist, unless you plan on stalking into the brothel and yanking out Master Cross."

"But…"

Allen looked at her with puppy eyes, and she gave in.

"We're going to get Master Cross though, if you really want to fight the Akuma."

"Deal."

* * *

It was easier said than done, because neither of them knew where the brothel was. They snuck around, keeping to shadows in back alleys, silently trailing the Akuma while Kiara kept an eye out for a brothel.

The weight of the Innocence crystal in her coat pocket made her feel slightly guilty. She had not told Allen about bringing it along, and while she knew it was risky she couldn't leave it in the inn room unguarded.

"This way," Allen hissed to her, and slipped into another alley.

She followed suit, but cringed and immediately flattened herself to the wall as her foot hit a glass bottle, causing it to fall and crash loudly.

_Shit,_ she mouthed, as she noticed the Akuma pause and rotate in their direction.

They were floating closer and closer. Squeezing her eyes shut, Kiara prayed that they wouldn't be spotted.

A yelp drowned her hopes, and her eyes flew open to see Allen rolling away from a smoking hole in the wall.

A mechanical whirring, and the barrel of the Akuma changed to point in her direction.

"Get away from her!"

Allen's arm was activated now, and he leapt at the Akuma, swiping at it. In the distance, she could see two others approaching, and fear rose to claw at her throat.

"Stay back, Kiara!" Allen gasped, before trying to swipe at the Akuma again. He succeeded in killing it, but was too late to avoid a bullet from one of the other two Akuma.

"_Allen-kun!_"

"It's okay," he rasped. "It hit my left arm."

Kiara began to hyperventilate as the Akuma, losing interest in Allen, turned to point at her.

"Stay away…" she whispered, clutching her coat closer to herself unconsciously.

The Akuma did not react.

"Go away!" she shrieked at it, voice full of irrational panic. "Leave me alone!"

And suddenly there was a flash of black fire.

* * *

The Innocence was no longer in her coat pocket, but there were now slim tendrils of black flame twining around her wrists, some connected to the ball of flames that now engulfed the Akuma.

"…This is…Innocence…?" she breathed.

Before she had time to wonder the Akuma exploded and the flames dissipated. At the same time, a golden bullet came flying, getting rid of the last Akuma.

"Master Cross?" Kiara yelped, spinning around. "How did you find us?"

"You two were making such a huge racket, how could I not notice?" asked Cross dryly.

Rolling her eyes, Kiara glanced at Allen, who was now picking himself up.

"Congratulations, by the way," Cross added. "You're an Exorcist now, brat."

* * *

**A/N:** Alright, I know this is an incredibly short chapter. DON'T KILL ME. D:

This is the last of the prologues though, next chapter onwards we'll be getting to the plot! And I will try to update faster this time. I'm having midyears now, which means more slack time to write! (Because I'm very obviously a procrastinator.)

To **Lathya**: I figured I'd reply your questions here in case anybody else was wondering. I wrote Allen as this nice kid because…well, I figured if he's already such a nice guy in the manga he must have been nicer when he was still an innocent little kid. (Or well, as innocent as you can get around Cross.) As for the next question, Kiara looks Asian. Allen thought she may have been Japanese so he just gave her a Japanese name. Also because Japanese is the only Asian thing he knows at this point in time – mitarashi dango does not count – so by association he just gave her a Japanese name.

I don't know if I've mentioned this yet, but I have a Livejournal where I post all my writing. It's mainly JE fics, but I have some random manga-related fics there which I may or may not have posted here yet. I update it more often than this, so feel free to check it out~ The link's on my profile.

Until next time (which I hope is soon),

Luna. (aka **espeon16**)


	4. Chapter 1: Night Admission

The night was silent, almost _too_ silent.

Two people picked their way through the leaf litter on the ground, looking around as though in search of something.

"…Are we _there_ yet?"

The taller person sighed irritably, and tiptoed to peer in the distance.

"I think we're almost there," the reply came after a short pause. "Master Cross _did_ say something about a cliff of some sort."

Ten minutes later, the duo had arrived at the base of said cliff. They paused then, and the shorter one let out a long sigh.

"I don't suppose there is some sort of…secret entrance that will allow us not to climb this?"

The taller one shrugged, and produced a pair of knives from thin sheaths strapped to both legs. Gripping one in each hand, a knife was driven into the rock face of the cliff.

"Well, see you at the top, I guess."

"W-wait!"

Ignoring the shorter one's protest, the taller one began to move up the cliff, using arm power alone with the knives as anchor points. Below, the shorter one began to do the same.

It was a strenuous climb, and before long the shorter one had begun to complain about aching arms.

"Shut up," the taller one grumbled. "It's all Master Cross' fault that we're here since he so kindly abandoned us, so just plot different ways to kill him instead of whining. Besides, whining wastes energy that you could be using to climb instead."

Scowling, the shorter one did so, concentrating on trying to get higher up the cliff wall.

"Pretty stupid to have a base on top of a cliff when your allies have to climb up but your enemies can just _fly_ to the top," the shorter one complained a while later, prompting a shrug from the taller one.

"The Order's stupid, so it's rather like them to do it anyway," came the dry reply, laced with a slight hint of hate and annoyance.

The shorter one sighed, scrabbling for a foothold on the rocky surface.

"You really hate them, huh."

"You _think_?"

This shut the shorter one up, and they continued to climb up to the top in silence. After a long while, the taller one finally got up onto the top of the cliff, squinting a little to look at the flat surface illuminated by moonlight. Behind, the shorter one collapsed on the edge of the cliff surface, totally exhausted by the climb up the dark cliffside.

"Are we here _now_?" came a tiny moan.

"_Yes_, Allen. We're here. Now, get off the ground."

"Kiara, you're harsh," whined Allen, but he dutifully peeled himself off the ground and followed his partner to the giant door of the castle in front of them.

* * *

Kiara's eye twitched slightly and her scowl deepened as she sunk further back into the shadows.

Somehow, the incompetent and untidy Supervisor had managed to lose Cross' letter in the mess of papers on the table. To make things worse, the gigantic face on the door of the castle had taken a look at Allen's scar and then promptly declared the pair of them Akuma (even though it had mentioned earlier that she was completely fine). Now, some swordsman had popped out of nowhere. She had been smart and quick enough to dodge out of the way, but Allen had not been fortunate enough, which was why he was currently trying his best to fight off the swordsman.

"Sloppy organization," she muttered to herself. "Should have expected no less."

She had not been very pleased when she had waken up one morning days ago, only to discover that their master Cross Marian had slipped away sometime in the night, leaving behind only his golden golem Timcanpy and a note with instructions on how to get to the Black Order. Kiara remembered being rather vocal on several accounts on how she would _not_ like to go to the Black Order, and thus had plotted several detailed plans on how to murder her master after she had seen that note.

Needless to say, the mess they were in now was doing nothing to help improve her mood.

_Finally_, the black golem that had been hovering around crackled to life, and the Supervisor's voice came out of it. Apparently, he had managed to find the letter sent to him by Cross, and thus was trying to coax the swordsman – named Kanda – to stop fighting.

However, the fighting did not stop until a girl in pigtails had run out and given the swordsman a hard whack on the head with a clipboard. By then, Allen looked even more exhausted than before, and just mutely trailed into the castle after the girl and Kiara.

* * *

"Welcome to the Black Order," the girl told them, and then introduced herself as Lenalee Lee, sister of the very same supervisor who had landed them all in this trouble in the first place.

Kiara took the moment to take in the interior of the Order's Headquarters. Previously, she had mainly been confined to the Asia Branch, and thus the interior here looked rather different. The somber and oppressive atmosphere, however, remained depressingly familiar.

She trailed along behind Lenalee and Allen as they were brought on a walking tour of the castle. After that, they were brought to meet Lenalee's brother, Komui, who offered to help fix Allen's arm that had been injured by the swordsman from earlier. Lenalee dragged her out of the room just as her brother whipped out a hard hat and a couple of dangerous-looking drills.

"Trust me," she whispered. "You don't want to be in there."

As if on cue, a pained scream emanated from the room, and Kiara winced.

"He sounds like he's being _tortured_."

"It happens," Lenalee agreed, and then abruptly changed subject. "Do you know about the types of Innocence?"

"Parasite-type and weapon-type," Kiara responded, remembering when Cross had mentioned it briefly a long time ago. "Allen and I are both parasitic."

"I'm weapon-type," Lenalee told her cheerily, but was prevented from saying anymore when the door of the room opened and Komui appeared, with a rather traumatized Allen in tow.

They followed Komui onto a floating platform next. As Kiara watched, Allen was suddenly grabbed from behind by a large white _thing_ that had risen up from what looked like the bottomless pit below the platform. The thing, which Komui called 'Hevlaska', began to analyse Allen's Innocence before setting him down and reading him a prophecy.

Then, it was her turn.

Having watched Allen go through the process already, she thought she would be more prepared for her turn. Still, it came as a major surprise when she was suddenly lifted off her feet into the air, glowing white tentacles reaching out to prod at the slim black flame-like tattoo around her wrist.

"…86%!" Hevlaska proclaimed finally. "That is your maximum synchronization rate for now."

The moment she was set back down on the platform she stumbled a little. Behind her, Hevlaska waited patiently for her to turn around before beginning to speak again.

"There will be a time when all is dark. In that time, you are destined to rise up like a phoenix in the night and become a destroyer of the darkness. That is what I have seen. That is my power."

* * *

At last, they had been led to their rooms.

Kiara was glad for an individual room, but still it only felt desolate and empty as she looked around.

"So," she muttered to herself. "Back at the Order, eh?"

She lay back on the bed, and Hevlaska's words from earlier came flooding back into her mind.

_Destroyer of the dark…_

Eyeing the bracelet-like tattoo on her right wrist, she let out a small sigh. A tiny flash of black flame sparked and flickered for a moment, before she willed her Innocence to deactivate itself again.

"We shall see about that…"

* * *

**A/N:** I'm on term break now, and it's possibly my last free one before I start junior college next year, so I'll see if I can squeeze in another chapter before school starts again. I've had exams and won my first Nanowrimo, following which I suffered a writing slump, which is why I was not able to start working on this until now.

Once again, I will reiterate that I am not exactly the most frequent of updaters. I will _try_ to put another chapter out before my holiday ends, but no guarantees there.

Until the next chapter!

~Luna (aka **espeon16**)


End file.
